|
The following appeared in the editorial section of a local newspaper. This past winter， 200 students from Waymarsh State College traveled to the state capitol building to protest against proposed cuts in funding for various state college programs. The other 12，000 Waymarsh students evidently werent so concerned about their education： they either stayed on campus or left for winter break. Since the group who did not protest is far more numerous， it is more representative of the states college students than are the protesters. Therefore the state legislature need not heed the appeals of the protesting students. Discuss how well reasoned.。. etc. The conclusion in this argument is that the state legislature need not consider the views of protesting students. To support this conclusion， the author points out that only 200 of the 12，000 students traveled to the state capitol to voice their concerns about proposed cuts in college programs. Since the remaining students did not take part in this protest， the author concludes they are not interested in this issue. The reasoning in this argument is flawed for two reasons. First， the author assumes that because only one-tenth of the students took part in the protest， these students views are unrepresentative of the entire student body. This assumption is unwarranted. If it turns out， for example， that the protesting students were randomly selected from the entire student body， their views would reflect the views of the entire college. Without information regarding the way in which the protesting students were selected， it is presumptuous to conclude that their opinions fail to reflect the opinions of their colleagues. | 
